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Bagger automation aids charitable food efforts

Midwest Food Bank adds vacuum conveying, auger filling, and form/fill/seal bagging equipment to its arsenal to help fight hunger.

The system is flexible to accommodate multiple MFB products.
The system is flexible to accommodate multiple MFB products.

Midwest Food Bank is a non-profit, faith-based organization whose mission is to gather large food donations from nationwide corporations and distribute them to social service organizations and natural disaster sites at no charge. The MFB maintains a fleet of semi trailers that transport dry and frozen product donations throughout the country. The Peoria, IL division of MFB also blends and packages a hearty, four-ingredient dried meal mix called “Tender Mercies” for broad distribution to people in need.


Larry Herman, director of MFB-Peoria, says, “In 2009, Midwest Food Bank was feeling the stress of economic upheaval and serious food insecurities among a growing segment of the population. These conditions created a large strain on our food procurement and distribution efforts. A portion of the foods we distribute includes bulk commodities such as dried beans, rice, and [Textured Vegetable Protein]. We had a cold storage facility as well as a clean room that we had installed in anticipation of future needs. So we concluded that the future was now. By combining some of these bulk ingredients into a high-flavor, nutritious, easy-to-prepare meal mix, we could add food value and help feed more people.”


Herman adds, “We felt we needed a chicken-flavored seasoning and vitamin/mineral boost to enhance nutritional and flavor values. After seeking professional food processing industry advice, we chose an excellent chicken seasoning component with a vitamin and mineral blend to add to the rice, bean, and TVP meal formulation. And we already had a clean-room environment where our staff and volunteers could come to blend and bag the meal mixes by hand. But soon, the demand for the mix was so great, we couldn’t keep up with it manually anymore.”


In the Summer of 2010, MFB began a search for automated packaging equipment that would best serve their operations. Following a lead from their flavoring supplier, MFB contacted Matrix Packaging Machinery, a ProMach company (www.matrixpm.com), a leading manufacturer of form/fill/seal machinery.

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